Nictzin Dyalhis
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Nictzin Dyalhis (1879? – 1942) was an American short story writer who specialized in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. During his lifetime he attained a measure of celebrity as a writer for the pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales.
In a field of popular literature characterized by prolific production, Dyalhis gained a kind of reverse fame by the extreme paucity of his output: he published only eight stories in Weird Tales over a fifteen-year period, with a ninth appearing posthumously, four decades after his death. Yet his stories were very popular with readers, and a few, notably "The Sapphire Goddess," have been featured in anthologies.
Dyalhis coupled his limited output of fiction with a penchant for personal privacy and an avoidance of publicity; among the imaginative readers of his stories, he acquired a reputation for possessing unusual abilities and an exotic history as an adventurer and world traveller. Firm facts about his life are few. His year of birth is uncertain; he may have been born in England—or Pima, Arizona. In his stories, Dyalhis played with common spellings, so that "Earth" becomes Aerth and "Venus," Venhez; he may have done the same with his own name, turning the prosaic "Dallas" into the exotic Dyalhis.
His earliest stories are fairly firmly in the science fiction genre; "When the Green Star Waned" is sometimes credited for introducing the term "blaster" for a raygun. "The Oath of Hul Jok" is its sequel. (In the verdict of one SF commentator, Dyalhis "established a reputation in Weird Tales out of proportion to either the quality or quantity of his contributions.")[1] Yet his overall output is most easily and readily categorized as occult fantasy, involving spiritual travel on the astral plane, journeys to Hell, and reincarnation.[2]
In the early 1940s, Dyalhis was living in Maryland, reportedly in difficult financial circumstances. He died in Salisbury, Maryland in 1942.
[edit] The Weird Tales Stories
- "When the Green Star Waned," April 1925; reprinted January 1929
- "The Eternal Conflict," October 1925
- "The Dark Lore," October 1927
- "The Oath of Hul Jok," September 1928
- "The Red Witch," April 1932
- "The Sapphire Goddess," February 1934
- "The Sea-Witch," December 1937; reprinted July 1953
- "Heart of Atlantan," September 1940
- "The Sapphire Siren," Spring 1981.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Michael Ashley, The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950, Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2000; p. 43.
- ^ John Clute and John Grant, editors, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1999; p. 305.
[edit] Sources
- Jaffery, Sheldon, and Fred Cook. The Collector's Index to Weird Tales. Bowling Green, OH, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1985.
- Moskowitz, Sam. "Nictzin Dyalhis: Mysterious Master of Fantasy." In Echoes of Valor III, edited by Karl Edward Wagner, Tor, 1991.
